The invention relates to an automotive head-up display with an expanded virtual image width.
In a motor vehicle, technical information, such as the current speed, the rotational speed of the engine or the oil temperature as well as traffic and navigation data are provided to the driver during the drive. The information is usually displayed on an instrument panel. When reading the displayed information from the instrument panel, the driver is at least briefly distracted from the traffic situation. Head-up displays make it possible to display information directly in the driver's visual range on the windshield of the vehicle. As a result, information contents can be acquired while the road conditions simultaneously remain in the driver's field of view.
Modern head-up displays generate a virtual image which to the driver appears to be situated at some distance in front of the windshield, for example, at the end of the engine hood. The virtual image can generally only be seen from a defined area, the so-called eyebox. The eyebox is usually designed such that the complete virtual image can be seen from the entire desired eyebox area.
The representation of increasingly larger virtual images is demanded from future head-up displays. In particular, contact-analogous head-up displays require the overlapping of the visual image by a largest possible portion of the road scene situated in front of the vehicle. In the case of an eyebox of the same design, however, together with the size of the virtual image, the size of the required optical component of a head-up display, for example, of the instrument panel detail or mirror apparatuses, will clearly increase. This makes the geometric integration of the head-up display in the narrowly dimensioned installation space in the instrument panel clearly more difficult.
It is desirable to indicate an automotive head-up display where the virtual image area is broadened and which nevertheless requires only little installation space. Furthermore, a vehicle having an automotive head-up display with a broadened virtual image area is to be indicated, in which case, the head-up display needs only a relatively small installation space in the instrument panel of the vehicle.
According to an embodiment, an automotive head-up display comprises an image generating device for generating virtual image which is visible from an eyebox. The image generating device is designed such that the virtual image has a bi-ocular image area and at least one mono-ocular image area which are visible from the eyebox.
In the case of the automotive head-up display, the eyebox is split into an area for the left eye and an area for the right eye. In the center of the virtual image, an area is situated for which the eyebox is designed such that the image area for the virtual image is visible for both eyes (bi-ocular). In addition, the virtual image has an additional image area on at least one side and preferable on both sides of the bi-ocular image area, which image area can in each case be seen only by an observer's one eye (mono-ocular). The generating of the additional mono-ocular image area can be achieved by a suitable design of the display and/or of the mirror apparatuses of the image generating device. The type of eyebox construction makes it possible to implement a larger overall image width of the virtual image without having to broaden the optical apparatuses and therefore the HUD (head-up display) package.
The splitting into a bi-ocular and at least one mono-ocular image area can also be reflected in the splitting of the display contents. In the bi-ocular image area, for example, information contents, which are permanently or frequently shown, can be displayed (static contents). The mono-ocular image areas may be used, for example, for image contents which are only displayed for a short time (dynamic contents). As a result, a driver's possible irritation can be minimized because of the only mono-ocularly visible areas.
The arrangement is particularly advantageous for contact-analogous head-up displays, because, particularly in the case of those displays, large image widths are demanded in order to cover an area that is as large as possible on the adjacent lanes of a vehicle. The above-mentioned splitting of the display contents can also advantageously be used in the case of a contact-analogous head-up display. Permanently displayed information, such as the speed of the vehicle, and contact-analogous contents in the own driving lane can be displayed in the bi-ocular central image area of the virtual image. Dynamic contact-analogous contents, which have to be displayed only according to the situation and for a short time, may be displayed in the outer mono-ocular image areas.
The invention will be explained in detail in the following by means of figures which illustrate the invention.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.